Clinicians recognize a distinction among central nervous system illnesses, and there have been many schemes for categorizing mental disorders. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Ed., Text Revision, (hereinafter, the “DSM-IV-TR™”), published by the American Psychiatric Association, and incorporated herein by reference, provides a standard diagnostic system upon which persons of skill rely. According to the framework of the DSM-IV-TR™, the CNS disorders of Axis I include: disorders diagnosed in childhood (such as, for example, attention deficit disorder or “ADD” and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder or “ADHD”) and disorders diagnosed in adulthood. CNS disorders diagnosed in adulthood include (1) schizophrenia and psychotic disorders; (2) cognitive disorders; (3) mood disorders; (4) anxiety related disorders; (5) eating disorders; (6) substance related disorders; (7) personality disorders; and (8) “disorders not yet included” in the scheme.
Of particular interest to the present invention are adulthood disorders of DSM-IV-TR™ categories (1) through (7) and sexual disorders, currently classified in category (8). Mood disorders of particular interest include depression, seasonal affective disorder and bipolar disorder. Anxiety related disorders of particular interest are agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, phobic anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, acute stress disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, premenstrual syndrome, social phobia, chronic fatigue disorder, perimenopause, menopause and male menopause.
In general, treatment for psychoses, such as schizophrenia, for example, is quite different than treatment for mood disorders. While psychoses are treated with D2 antagonists such as olanzapine (the “typical” and “atypical” antipsychotics), mood disorders are treated with drugs that inhibit the neuronal reuptake of monoamines, in particular, serotonin (5-HT), norepinephrine (NE) and dopamine (DA).
Common therapeutic agents for mood disorders include, but are not limited to, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI's), including fluoxetine, citalopram, nefazodone, fluvoxamine, paroxetine, and sertraline.
Sertraline, whose chemical name (1S,4S)-cis 4-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-N-methyl-1-napthalenamine, is approved for the treatment of depression by the United States Food and Drug Administration, and is available under the trade name ZOLOFT® (Pfizer Inc., NY, N.Y., USA). In the human subject, sertraline has been shown to be metabolized to (1S,4S)-cis 4-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1-napthalenamine, also known as desmethylsertraline or norsertraline. Desmethylsertraline has been described as “not contributing significantly to the serotonergic action of sertraline” Ronfield et al., Clinical Pharmacokinetcs, 32:22-30 (1997). Reports from Hamelin et al., Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 60:512
(1996) and Serebruany et al., Pharmacological Research, 43:453-461 (2001), have stated that norsertraline is “neurologically inactive”. These statements appear to be based on results observed in serotonin-induced syndrome and ptosis in mouse models in vivo, whereas the original Pfizer research papers suggested on the basis of data in vitro that desmethylsertraline was a selective serotonin uptake inhibitor. Koe et al., JPET, 226:686-700 (1983). Sanchez et al., Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, 19:467 (1999), speculated that despite its lower potency, desmethylsertraline might play a role in the therapeutic effects of sertraline but, there is presently no evidence in the literature to support this theory.
The primary clinical use of sertraline is in the treatment of depression. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,870 discloses and claims the use of sertraline and norsertraline, as well as (1R,4S)-trans 4-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-N-methyl-1-napthalenamine and (1S,4R)-trans 4-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-N-methyl-1-napthalenamine for the treatment of psychoses, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammation. The receptor pharmacology of the individual (1S,4R) and (1R,4S) enantiomers of trans 4-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-N-methyl-1-napthalenamine is described by Welch et al., J. Med. Chem., 27:1508-1515 (1984).